Zcash price has gained about 102% over the past month to trade near $1,535 as co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson has repeated his forecast that ZEC will reach $5,000 by the end of 2026.
Summary
- Ben-Sasson said his $5,000 year-end forecast remains on track after ZEC passed his earlier $1,200 target.
- ZEC recently traded above $1,600 before pulling back toward the $1,500 level.
- Grayscale’s U.S.-listed Zcash fund has surpassed $1 billion in assets roughly a month after its exchange debut.
- The daily chart places $1,625 above ZEC and $1,500 at the nearest marked level below its recent high.
Ben-Sasson said in a recent X post that he still considers his $5,000 year-end prediction on track. He also said large holders had asked him about ZEC’s latest rise, while acknowledging that he did not know precisely what caused the move.
The forecast follows an earlier call for ZEC to exceed $1,200 by Sep. 25. Zcash passed that price during its September rally and later traded above $1,600, putting the token well beyond the level Ben-Sasson had named for the month.
At roughly $1,535, a move to $5,000 would require ZEC to rise about 226%. The year-end figure remains Ben-Sasson’s prediction; his post did not identify a price model or a sequence of levels leading to it.
Zcash price holds above $1,500 after its monthly surge
Zcash price traded near $1,535 on the Binance daily chart captured on Sep. 26. The session showed an opening price of $1,555.74, a high of $1,559.02, and a low of $1,527.56 at the time of the reading.
Price remained above the chart’s $1,500 Murrey Math level after pulling back from a recent peak above $1,600. The next marked level above price was $1,625, followed by $1,750. Below $1,500, the chart placed the next levels at $1,375 and $1,250.
The daily average directional index, or ADX, stood at 60.44. ADX measures the strength of a trend without showing its direction; ZEC’s price action supplies the directional context after its climb through the September levels.
The speed of the advance has also brought sharp reversals. On Sep. 18, ZEC reached $1,535.82 before retreating toward $1,455, as previous Zcash price coverage detailed. At the time, the $1,500 level acted as resistance. ZEC has since moved above it, though its retreat from the latest high leaves that level close to the market again.
Earlier in September, ZEC rose from around $814 to more than $1,200. The rise included a move above $1,000 on Sep. 4, when short liquidations added to trading activity. Price then crossed $1,250 and $1,375 during the next leg of the rally.
Grayscale’s Zcash fund gives U.S. investors exchange access
Grayscale’s Zcash product began trading on NYSE Arca under the ticker ZCSH on Aug. 25 after the firm converted its existing trust into an exchange-traded fund. The listing gave U.S. brokerage investors a way to gain ZEC exposure without buying and storing the token themselves, as crypto.news covered after its launch.
Grayscale launched the product with about $304 million in assets held by the former trust. Its assets passed $500 million within weeks and reached more than $1 billion roughly one month after the listing, according to Grayscale’s reported fund figures. Asset growth includes changes in the value of ZEC already held by the fund, as well as investment flows.
ZCSH is also approaching a change to its share structure. Grayscale has scheduled a three-for-one forward split, with investors on record at the close of Sep. 28 set to receive two additional shares for each share held. Distribution is scheduled for Sep. 29, and split-adjusted trading is due to begin before the market opens on Sep. 30.
The split will triple the number of shares held by each eligible investor while reducing the net asset value per share proportionately. It will not change the value of the investor’s holding at the time of the adjustment, according to the ZCSH split filing.
For U.S. investors comparing the fund with direct ZEC ownership, Grayscale states that ZCSH is not registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Its shares trade through brokerage accounts, while direct holders own the cryptocurrency itself.
Network upgrade plans add dates to the ZEC calendar
Zcash developers have set an Oct. 6 testnet activation target for Network Upgrade 7, or NU7, according to the project’s published upgrade timeline. The plan includes reducing the target time between blocks from 75 seconds to 25 seconds.
The proposed schedule calls for a final decision on mainnet activation on Oct. 20, after developers review the testnet rollout. Mainnet activation is targeted for Nov. 5. The upgrade package also includes changes to older transaction formats and the network’s funding mechanism.
Coinholders had backed the faster block target in a September poll. Nearly 99.9% of the participating ZEC supported the 25-second proposal, while about 98.9% favored retaining the existing halving schedule, according to coverage of the NU7 vote.
Outside the U.S., 21Shares launched a physically backed Zcash exchange-traded product on Euronext Paris and Amsterdam in September. The product gives eligible European brokerage customers another route to ZEC exposure, weeks after ZCSH began trading in New York.
